Greater New Orleans

New Orleans police said Brittany Martin, 25, and Horatio Johnson, 37, will be transferred to Orleans Parish on Monday, where each will be booked with two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the drowning deaths of Reserve couple Kenneth and Lakeitha Joseph.
(Photos courtesy of St. John The Baptish Parish Sheriff's Office)

Brittany Martin and Horatio Johnson, the pair jailed in the drowning deaths of a Reserve couple, were tripped up by not paying cash for the items used to bind and sink the couple into the Intracoastal Waterway, New Orleans police said Thursday.

NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas praised investigators but offered few additional details following the arrests of Martin and Johnson, who surrendered to authorities Wednesday in St. John The Baptist Parish in connection with the murder of Kenneth and Lakeitha Joseph.

Serpas made it clear police are far from closing the case.

"After learning of their warrants for arrest, both suspects turned themselves in to the U.S. Marshals task force," Serpas said. "Based on information learned after the arrest, investigators have developed a number of additional leads. There are other people we know have information that can lead to further knowledge of this case.

Imploring others to come forward, he said: "We know more than you think we know, and the time has come for you to come forward and talk to authorities."

Trail of evidence

A digital trail was left for investigators to follow, after Martin and Johnson used an American Express card and receipt signed by "B. Martin" on Feb. 19 at 1 a.m. to purchase two 30-pound kettlebells, blue utility rope and other items police believe were used to drown Kenneth and Lakeitha Joseph, who were first reported missing by concerned relatives later that day.

Martin, 25, and Johnson, 37, remained in the St. John The Baptist Parish jail Thursday on warrants. They are expected to be moved Monday to Orleans Parish, where police said each will be booked with two counts of second-degree murder.

Johnson is on parole until 2018 for a manslaughter conviction. More details about that conviction were not immediately available.

Bodies surface

The Josephs' corpses were not discovered for nearly a month after their disappearance.

The body of Lakeitha Joseph, 29, was spotted by a passing tugboat on March 10, floating with blue nylon rope binding the feet. The end of the rope was frayed, indicating it had been tied to something heavy, detectives surmised. An autopsy determined she had been in the water at least two weeks.

The remains of Kenneth Joseph, 34, bobbed to the surface in view of fishermen on March 22. His feet also were bound by blue nylon rope, with a 30-pound kettlebell still attached.

The Orleans Parish Coroner's Office determined both died from drowning, and classified the deaths as homicides on April 4.

Court records show NOPD Detective Ryan Vaught already was on the suspected killers' trail before the coroner's ruling. In a search warrant application dated March 27, Vaught sought and was granted court permission to obtain purchase history and other records associated with Martin's AmEx card between Feb. 1 to March 1.

According to the warrant, Vaught already had found a kettlebell similar to the one attached to Kenneth Joseph on the shelves of a Walmart in Kenner. Using the item's stock-keeping unit (SKU) barcode, the purchase made with Martin's card was found in the store's sales database, and the transaction with Martin and Johnson present was recorded on the store's surveillance video.

The $177.20 transaction included two 30-pound kettlebells, two hooded fleece sweatshirts, three pairs of "gripping gloves," fishing line, two pairs of shoes, a bottle of degreaser and blue nylon utility rope.

Detectives
said Mike, 45, attempted to wipe down the van to eliminate fingerprints
and other evidence, but forensic officers were able to recover blood
samples that matched the Josephs' DNA. Investigators said Mike was
captured on surveillance video as the driver and lone occupant of the
van as it stopped for the night at a Georgia motel on Feb. 21.
Authorities did not recover the van until Feb. 27, when it was
discovered abandoned in an apartment complex's parking lot not far from
Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

On March 31, NOPD investigators obtained a search warrant for a boarded-up house at 8455 Beechwood Court in eastern New Orleans frequented by Frank Mike Jr., according to neighbors.

The warrant authorized police to collect hair, blood, DNA and fiber evidence, along with electronic data and phone devices from the house and its unattached garage. The warrant also permitted searches for proof of residency linking Mike to the house, which he told a neighbor he had purchased in an auction.

A newly unsealed court document shows police used that warrant to seize from the house "possible biological samples," paperwork and business cards, a Louisiana driver's license, a red New Orleans Pelicans baseball cap, and a blue-and-white striped polo shirt.

The arrest warrant for Mike indicated he was wearing a striped shirt Feb. 21 when he parked the Josephs' borrowed 2010 Dodge Caravan at the motel in College Park, Ga. The man who checked into the hotel did so using a Louisiana driver's license issued to Frank Mike Jr., police said.

At his arraignment, a prosecutor told Mike he faces three to 10 years in federal prison if convicted.

Mike told investigators he arrived home one day to find the van
backed into his driveway, according to papers unsealed April 24 in federal court. He said he asked about the van and that a
friend told him "we pulled off a little move in it."

"Mike
believed that a 'little move' meant an armed robbery or simply a stolen
car because he knew his friend to commit that type of criminal
activity," FBI agent Timothy Denny wrote in an affidavit. Mike asked
the friend for permission to drive the van to Atlanta "to go shopping
for clothes," according to the affidavit. While there, he said he learned from news reports that the vehicle might be stolen and linked to
two missing people. He told police he wiped down the van, abandoned it, and drove back to New Orleans with two
other people in a different vehicle.